The Latest Breaking News from Anthony Comstock

Censorship campaigns can have a way of backfiring – look no further than the fate of America’s most prolific censor

In the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, his administration has made many attempts to suppress speech it disfavors – at universities, on the airwaves, in public school classrooms, in museums, at protests and even in lawyer’s offices.

The Conversation · Sep 30, 2025

Seizure of Sally Mann’s photographs in Texas revives old debates about obscenity and freedom of expression

Four photographs by celebrated artist Sally Mann were recently removed from the walls of an exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth at the behest of local Republican officials, who claimed they constituted child pornography. The Fort Worth Police Department is now investigating the allegation.

The Conversation · Jan 24, 2025

The Stop Comstock Act Doesn't Go Far Enough

Upcoming legislation would repeal parts of the 1873 law that could be used to target abortion, but the Comstock Act's reach is much more broad than that.

Reason · Jun 21, 2024

Michael Hiltzik: Conservative attacks on abortion depend on a law that courts have snubbed for 100 years

Nothing reflects that show-stopping lyric "everything old is new again" like the tactics of the antiabortion movement — specifically, its reliance on a long-discredited 1873 law to eviscerate women's healthcare rights in the modern age.

Los Angeles Times · May 19, 2023

An obscure 1800s law is shaping up to be the center of the next abortion battle – legal scholars explain what's behind the Victorian-era Comstock Act

Anti-abortion groups are looking for new ways to wage their battle against abortion rights, eyeing the potential implications of a 150-year-old law, the Comstock Act, that could effectively lead to a nationwide abortion ban.

The Conversation · May 12, 2023

An anti-obscenity law from 1873 was discarded for decades. Now the anti-abortion movement wants it back

Anthony Comstock’s crusade against women gained him the moniker of ‘moral eunuch’. Today’s anti-choice zealots are following in his footsteps

The Guardian - US · Apr 19, 2023

Why anti-abortion groups are citing the ideas of a 19th-century 'vice reformer'

Anthony Comstock pushed Congress to crack down on what he saw as harmful vices, such as pornography and contraception. An 1873 law named for him has appeared in recent court battles over abortion.

WEKU · Apr 18, 2023

A new abortion pill ruling is super bad

The 5th Circuit judges nodded approval of a 19th century federal law that was used to ban books and birth control

Salon · Apr 14, 2023

What to know about the Comstock Act as abortion pill fight escalates

Anti-abortion groups have revived the centuries-old law.

Axios · Apr 12, 2023

Editorial: An outdated vice law should not be a weapon against reproductive rights

The Comstock Act of 1873 is a relic, the work of an anti-vice crusader, Anthony Comstock, who lobbied Congress to prohibit, among other things, the mailing of any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” written material. The act, formally known as “An Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of,…

Los Angeles Times · Apr 4, 2023